Les Malheurs d'Alfred (1972)
Directed by Pierre Richard

Film Review

Having made a promising directing debut with Le Distrait (1970), Pierre Richard delivered another winner in Les Malheurs d'Alfred (ou Après la pluie... le mauvais temps), one of his zaniest films.  A non-stop series of mainly visual gags, the film shows Richard at his most confident and inventive as a comic performer, aided and abetted by a talented supporting cast that includes Anny Duperey and Pierre Mondy. As with Richard's first directorial offering, this exuberant romp was produced by La Guéville, the company that had been created by the actors Yves Robert and Danièle Delorme.  Robert also collaborated with Richard on the screenplay and would later direct him in some of his most successful film comedies, notably Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire (1972) and Le Retour du grand blond (1974).

Les Malheurs d'Alfred may not be Pierre Richard's most accomplished film but it includes some of the funniest scenes he ever appeared in.  The highpoint is the sequence in which Richard and Duperey try to stop each other from committing suicide and end up by driving their neighbour Mario David mad.  Admittedly, the lack of anything vaguely approximating to a plot makes the film a little tiresome in places but the abundance of good humour keeps things moving.

The film's only unpardonable failing is that it doesn't have a decent punch line - it just collapses, as if the wheels have suddenly come off the comedy juggernaut.  Richard had a particular fondness for this film and would re-cycle some of its better ideas in his latter comedy La Chèvre (1981).  Confident in his abilities as a director, the comic genius would go on to direct several more of his comedies, including Je sais rien, mais je dirai tout (1973) and Je suis timide mais je me soigne (1978).

Film Synopsis

Ever since he was a child, Alfred Dhumonttye has been afflicted with chronic bad luck.  The most cursed of all architects, every building he has ever designed suffers the misfortune of some disaster or other.  In the end, Alfred decides that he has no choice but to kill himself, but even his suicide attempt fails, because he happens to jump into a river just as Agathe, a television presenter, has the same idea.  After being rescued by the police, Alfred moves in with Agathe, who has grown tired of being the mistress of television producer François Morel.  Alfred accompanies his neighbour to a TV audition and ends up on the Parisian team of a forthcoming game show, which consists of bizarre contests between two rival teams.  Morel has decided in advance that the Paris team will lose the competition to its provincial opponents, but Alfred has other ideas...